Trans 333 2004 Part 1
Ray Zahab writes:
Hey Everyone !
I just got back from Africa yesterday and aside from
an insane stomach "thing" I got from eating sheep I
feel great !
I ended up finishing in third place just minutes
behind second in the Trans 333 which is a 333 km
non-stop footrace across the Tenere Desert in Niger,
Africa. It took approx. 64 hours of running in
sometimes deep sand, super rocky terrain, and sand
storms with insane heat to finish.
MORE...
Getting there was an adventure in itself. We flew from
Paris to Agadez airstrip in Niger. Airstrip is an
understatement ! The ancient Air Medeterrainian 737
barely had any room to land. It was basically a strip
of asphalt in the desert with an airport that was a
concrete room. From the airport we headed into Agadez
which is one of the larger cities in Niger. It was a
city of clay buildings with very little modern
implements. No traffic lights, signs or asphalt roads.
It was like a mix of old and new. Exhaust fumes filled
the air from scooters and Landcruisers.The Alain
Gestin Organization took very good care of us and
their staff was very helpful in preparing to leave for
the desert.
The athletes all met and we left for a two day trip
into the desert for the start of the race. Our Toureg
(desert folk) guides drove us in landcruisers out into
the desert to the start which was at the Arb De Tenere
(a monument to the last standing tree in the Tenere
Desert which apparently died). We bivied after driving
for a day and then carried on into day 2. Looking
around at the vastness of the desert I couldn't
believe we had to run all the way back to Agadez ! At
one point on our journey out our Landcruiser broke
down-yikes ! But they got it going and off we went. I
had the good fortune of riding in my Landcruiser with
Jack Denness who is a veteran of this race and a 11
time (I hope that's right!) finisher of Badwater.
Picking his brains for tips really helped out !
The start of the race was at 4:30 am on Monday. There
was a wind blowing and as we stood at the start I was
running through my mind if I had packed enough bars
and gels and Hydrade into my dropbags. There was 14
cp's approx. 22 km's apart where you would retrieve
your dropbags and get more water. We would navigate to
each cp with the aid of a gps and occasional markers.
To be continued tomorrow
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